Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, and the standard.
Today’s photo by Marie Gail Stratford seems to offer endless possibilities.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on the picture, below.
© Marie Gail Stratford
Rooftop
The winged creature gazes down from the rooftop.
The machines are everywhere.
They crowd the streets to the point of congestion.
But, unlike before The Rising, there is no sound of disharmony.
They seem to enjoy the chaos, be unmindful of delays.
They also fill the apartments in the West End.
Formerly the abodes of the privileged, these luxury homes now garage scores of 4-wheelers.
How they got there is anybody’s guess.
But there is no one left to guess.
There are no people to be seen.
And no animals of any sort.
I wheel away towards the distant ocean.
Sound Bite Fiction 
How terrible to have limited hand movement – I hope you recover soon. That being said, no need to send any reply to this comment. Interesting storyline – what goes down once we pesky humans are removed. My initial thought is that the machines will triumph, but…you never know, Nature, she be quite the adversary.
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Sorry to hear about your problems, hope you get better soon. As for the story, I hope it is a clash of fantasy creatures and IA…you set it so well, so that is what I am going for.
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I hope nature can prevail. Will the winged creature be any help, I wonder. Intriguing tale.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Having just read “A Second Request” I feel I “get this”.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
But I have to ask, of course.
Did you enjoy my short thriller, available in the right hand column?
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I did. sorry about your hand. I hope you heal quickly.
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I think it’s a dragon come to save the day! That would make a fun story…dragons vs. the machines.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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No problem C.E.. Hope your hands are a little better today.
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I wonder if the winged creature is actually a machine… Interesting!
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Some time when I read the news, it feels like there is no humanity left in the world…your piece this week captured that feeling. Well done.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Take care and feel better soon.
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We have buzzards on top of one of our mini-skyscrapers here in South London and I was going to try to get my imagination inside their point of view for my story so I love this perspective.
Some interesting ambiguity set up with wings and wheels – I’m assuming wheeling on wings rather than wheeling on wheels?
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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I can’t really say that I understand it. Machines took over. No life left. What do the machines ‘live’ of, are they conscious? Very intriguing.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Wings and wheels – strange creatures indeed.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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So intriguing! I like that you refer to “the Rising”–perfectly ominous sounding. Is the winged creature the same as the narrator who wheels away? Interesting to picture.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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As we become more tech oriented, it could just happen like that.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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That was weird. Good, but weird. 🙂 ❤
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Understood.
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Not so terrifying if they do better on earth than we have..unique and interesting take you’ve done.
Cheers.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Hope it gets better.
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Unique take on the prompt, CE. Enjoyed dwelling on the concept.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Dear CE,
This put me in mind of some of my favorite Bradbury stories. Such a cold, bleak atmosphere. Very well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies, even to you, m’lady.
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So the machines finally got smart and eliminated us puny humans. But the winged creature…some sort of amphibious, self aware drone?
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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A world completely run by machines, machines in harmony. No humans, no animals — except this winged creature what is He? Is he alone?
A sad view of what the world could become, worse than dystopian. Good write Caeyr!
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Sadly I guess the cycles are relegated to the cellars. At least the rats will not get the tires.
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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I knew it was bound to happen! The Transformers have taken over the world (or at least London and Chicago). I doubt they can do any worse than we have, so I’m happy to give them their chance at world domination.
All my best,
Marie Gail
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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What a nightmare scenario , machines for people
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Surprising! I did think the winged machine might have preferred flying to wheeling though. Perhaps in the sequel 🙂
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Get better soon. Take care! Graham sends his love.
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Taken over by the machines… I guess the winged creature is not of the natural kind…
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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Just take care of yourself… We’ll wait for you! xoxo
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Hugs
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Right back at you! xo
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Sounds like the population of the city was inhabited by lemmings and the machines took over.
Now, if we could just find our way to the beach …
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This is a blanket apology to all comments.
I have a problem with my hand, and typing is slow and painful.
And painfully slow!
Sorry not to give individual replies.
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No problem. We know you’re out there. 😉
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